DINOSAUR QUESTIONS
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Zoom Dinosaurs DINOSAUR QUESTIONS |
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| By Date | By Type of Dinosaur | General Dino. Qns. | Qns. About Other Animals | Geological Era Qns. | |||
A: Most of T. rex's skull was jaws. These huge jaws were up to 4-feet (1.2 m) long. T. rex had over 60 sharp teeth in these jaws. For more information on T. rex, click here.
A: Velociraptor lived during the very warm late Cretaceous period. Fossils have been found in what is now Mongolia (in the Gobi desert), Russia, and China. Velociraptor preyed upon animals like Protoceratops and Maiasaura, medium-sized plant-eaters that must have stayed near lots of vegetation because they needed to eat hundreds of pounds of plants each day - so Velociraptor must have hunted for them in relatively lush areas. For more information on Velociraptor, click here.
A: The supercontinent Pangaea began to break up in the middle of the Mesozoic Era (during the Jurassic period). In the Middle Jurassic, the supercontinent Pangaea started to drift apart. A north-south rift formed, and by the late Jurassic, the separation of the continents of Laurasia and Gondwana was almost complete. For more information on the Mesozoic Era, click here or on "Mesozoic" in the margin to the left.
A: Like most dinosaurs, Stegosaurus hatched from egg. For more information on Stegosaurus, click here.
A: Click here for an information sheet on pterodactyls (also known as pterodactyloids). Your e-mail address didn't work.
A: It hasn't been found yet. Eoraptor (meaning "dawn raptor") is the oldest dinosaur yet found, even older than Herrerasaurus. However, Eoraptor probably wasn't the first dinosaur; it is not the ancestor of all the other dinosaurs that have been found.
Q: Was the T-rex afraid of anything?
Q: What is the tallest dinosaur?
Jensen's "Ultrasauros" lived during the late Jurassic period, and was one of the largest land animals ever discovered. It was a four-legged plant eater with a long, giraffe-like neck held high, a sloping back, a tiny head, and a medium-length tail. Estimates of its size vary since only a very incomplete fossil was found. Estimates vary from 82-98 feet long (25-30 m), about 52 feet (15 m) high, and a weight of 55 to 130 tons. "Ultrasauros machintoshi" may actually be a just very large example of Brachiosaurus or perhaps even Supersaurus, and not a new genus. When more fossils are found, this can be cleared up.
Q: In the movie Jurassic Park, the Dilophosaurus spit poison. However, I haven't discovered anything about this in research I have done. Did Dilophosaurs really spit poison or did Jurassic Park writers make up this "fact"?
The smallest dinosaur yet discovered is Compsognathus, which was the size of a chicken. It was a tiny meat-eater that walked on two legs and lived during the Jurassic period. For more information on Compsognathus, click here.
A: Sauropelta was a 25 foot (7.6 m) long ankylosaur, an armored dinosaur with plates all over the top of its body and a row of spikes running along each side. For an information sheet on Sauropelta, click here.
A: Eoraptor (meaning "dawn raptor") is the oldest dinosaur yet found, even older than Herrerasaurus. It was from the late Triassic period, roughly 228 million years ago. It was a very small, light, primitive theropod dinosaur that walked on two legs (a biped). It was less than 3 feet (1 m) long, had hollow long bones, five fingers, and was a carnivore (it ate meat). It was found in 1991 in Argentina, South America, in the same rock formation that yielded Herrerasaurus.
A: You (or your teacher) want a lot of information that isn't known. Styracosaurus was a ceratopsian dinosaur, and it was probably a herding dinosaur (this is deduced from bonebed evidence). Like most dinosaurs, they hatched from eggs. They may have cared for their young, given their herding behavior, but to what extent is unknown. As to intelligence, the ceratopsians were in the mid-range of dinosaur brain-size/body-size; for a chart of the dinosaurs' relative intelligence, click here. Determining most of the other behavioral questions you ask about is virtually impossible from fossil evidence.
A: T. rex was pretty much at the top of the food chain; its enemies were tiny bugs, like bacteria and viruses which could kill it with disease. T. rex fossils have been found in the USA (in Montana, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming), Canada (Alberta and Saskatchewan), and east Asia (in Mongolia). For more information on Tyrannosaurus rex, click here.
A: Megalodon (Carcharodon megalodon) was an ancient shark, living between 5-1.6 million years ago; it is extinct. It was up to 40 feet (12 m) long, but this is only an estimate from fossil teeth that have been found. Shark fossils are rare because sharks have no bones, only cartilage, which does not fossilize well. I've never read the book "Meg."
A: For an information sheet on Dimetrodon, click here - I think it will answer your questions.
A: For a picture of Megalosaurus and an information sheet, click here.
A: Plesiosaurus was a marine lizard about 16 feet long that lived during the Jurassic period; it was not a dinosaur. It had very little protection from predators. Its best protection was its teeth and its speed in the water. For more information on Plesiosaurs, the family that Plesiosaurus belonged to, click here.
A: Very primitive marsupials (the ancestors of today's opossums) evolved during the Cretaceous period, between 100 and 75 million years ago. This was towards the end of the Mesozoic Era (the dinosaur's reign); the dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago. Modern-day opossums evolved much later.
A: There were no flying dinosaurs but there were a lot of flying reptiles during the time of the dinosaurs. These flying reptiles were called pterosaurs; examples include Pteranodon and Quetzalocoatlus. They went extinct along with the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. For more information on pterosaurs, click here.
Plant eaters (herbiores) usually have blunt teeth that are good for stripping vegetation (leaves, twigs, etc.). Some also have flat teeth for grinding tough plant fibers. Many herbivores have cheek pouches in which they can store food for a while. Plant eaters also usually have larger digestive systems that are needed to digest the tough fibers. Sometimes these dinosaurs swallow rocks to help grind up the fibers in their guts. Some (like Ankylosaurus) even had fermentation chambers, where the fibers were dissolved.
Meat eaters (carnivores) need to have some way to get meat. Carnivorous dinosaurs usually had long, strong legs so thay they could run fast in order to catch their prey. They also needed big, strong jaws, sharp teeth and deadly claws that could kill and then tear apart the prey. Good eyesight, a keen sense of smell, and a large brain to plan hunting strategies are also very important for successful hunting. Many of the carnivores (like Deinonychus) may have hunted in packs, so social cooperation was necessary for a good hunt. Scavengers (animals that eat meat that they did not kill themselves) need very sharp teeth and strong jaws for tearing into the meat and breaking the bones for nutritious bone marrow.
T. rex probably attacked by chasing its prey and taking huge bites of flesh with its enormous jaws and slashing the prey with its large toe claws. The loss of blood would kill the prey pretty quickly. T. rex's tiny arms were probably not used in the kill. Click here for more information on T. Rex.
A: Velociraptor fossils have been found in Mongolia, China, and Russia. Velociraptor lived during the Cretaceous period, a time that was warmer than it is now, but also a time of increased volcanic activity and continental movement; the continents had almost taken on their modern-day form. For more information on Velociraptor, click here.
A: Apatosaurus (which used to be known as Brontosaurus) was a huge herbivorous dinosaur. It was a saurischian ("lizard hipped" dinosaurs, the ancestors of birds), a sauropodomorph (long-necked, long-tailed plant-eaters who walked on four legs), a sauropod (very large herbivores), and a member of the Family Diplodocidae (peg-toothed sauropods, which included Diplodocus, Seismosaurus, Supersaurus, and others).
A: Lesothosaurus was one of the earliest dinosaurs yet found, and dates from the early Jurassic period. It walked on two long legs, had short arms, a long tail, a small head, and was small, about 3 feet (1 m) long. It was an herbivore (plant-eater) and a fast, agile runner. It was an ornithischian dinosaur (the "bird-hipped" dinosaurs), an ornithopod (bipedal dinos with no body armor), and belonged to the family Fabrosauridae (the earliest ornithopods). Two Lesothosaurus fossils were found together in Lesotho, South Africa.
Nothosaurus was about 10 feet (3 m) long. Click here for more info on Nothosaurus and other Nothosaurs. I can't find any information on their weights and I'm not sure how you'd figure out a height measurement for these seal-like animals.
2) Dryosaurus (meaning "oak lizard") was a fast moving, agile, herbivorous (plant eater) dinosaur. It was about 10 feet (3 m) long and 4.5 feet (1.4 m) tall. It had large eyes, long, thin legs with three toes, shorter arms with five long fingers, a horny beak and cheek teeth. It may have stored food in its cheeks. It had a long neck and a stiff tail used for balance. It laid eggs and may have travelled in herds. There may have been some parental care for the young.
A: Dimetrodon (not a dinosaur but a pelycosaur) was about11.5 feet (3.5 m) long and 4 -5 feet (1.2-1.5 m) tall; most of the height was the sail. Click here for an information sheet on Dimetrodon.
A: Sauropelta was an armored dinosaur from the early Cretaceous period. It looked a lot like its relative Ankylosaurus, but didn't have the bony nodes at the end of its tail or horns on its head. It was about 25 feet long and weighed over 3 tons. Like Ankylosaurus, it had horn-covered plates all over its body embedded in its skin (except on its underbelly). It also had a row of sharp spikes going along each side of its body. It was an herbivore (it ate plants) and moved very slowly on four short legs. Fossils have been found in Montana, USA.
A: Tyrannosaurus rex lived during the late Cretaceous period, about 85 to 65 million years ago. Fossils have been found in the western USA (in Montana, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming), Canada (Alberta and Saskatchewan), and Asia (Mongolia).
A: Giganotosaurus lived during the mid-Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago. For more information on Giganotosaurus, click here.
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